In today's market arena, it becomes increasingly more important that packaging be so designed so as to offer tamper evidence that a container had not been previously opened. This is of particular concern in the consumer field wherein orally ingested materials are stored in plastic containers. It is necessary that such containers have detectable or demonstrable evidence of having been tampered with or opened. Another area is the storage container for a recording medium such as the digital recording medium, particularly compact discs (CD). Compact discs come in a variety of different sizes (including a micro-disc) and may be used to digitally record sound (audio-CD's), images (photo-CD's) and data (CD-ROM's) and combinations thereof. While the present invention is particularly illustrated with respect to CD's, the principles hereof are applicable to any area of thermoplastic moldeding medium, particularly compact discs (CD). Compact discs come in a variety of different sizes (including a micro-disc) and may be used to digitally record sound (audio-CD's), images (photo-CD's) and data (CD-ROM's) and combinations thereof. While the present invention is particularly illustrated with respect to CD's, the principles hereof are applicable to any area of thermoplastic molded or formed storage containers where evidence is wanted to demonstrate that the container had been previously tampered with or opened, such as plastic bottles with caps, thermoplastic containers for cosmetics, storage containers for single or multiple CD's, storage containers in general, etc.
In the CD storage container field, for example, a variety of problems are faced by the CD manufacturers. One such problem is pilferage of the compact discs themselves. Another problem is where one may substitute a used or different compact disc for the one or ones in the compact disc container. A further problem is in the after market for compact discs wherein unsold and supposedly unused compact discs are returned for subsequent selling through discount markets or other outlets. The question facing the industry, however, is how to determine if a compact disc container had been previously opened. One solution has been to place, what is commonly referred to as a "dog bone" tape over one end of the container, preferably the end to be opened. In this manner, theoretically, when the box is opened, the tape is broken indicating that the container had been previously opened. However, it had been discovered that this "dog bone" tape can be wholly or partially removed without breaking or tearing the tape and then replaced, thereby demonstrating to any future user thereof that the container had not been opened, when in fact it had been opened. Also, with CD containers, the "dog bone" tape need not even be removed, since access to the CD holder compartment can be had through the hinged section of the CD container by merely separating the ends of the cover of the CD container at the hinged section.
Therefore, an object of this invention to provide means whereby it can be visually determined that a storage container had been previously opened.
It is another object of this invention to provide means to visually determine that a storage container for compact discs had been previously opened.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a storage container for compact discs employing a break-away tab which upon initial opening of the container, the tab breaks away.
Further, another object of this invention is to provide a thermoplastic resin molded bottle and cap container having a break-away tab molded in the bottle and cap structure such that the tab breaks away on initial opening, thereby demonstrating that the bottle had been previously opened.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a hinged container wherein the hinged section of the container has a locking means locking the container at the hinged section when the container is in the closed orientation position and yet the hinged sections would still be rotatable around a hinge pin.